Shannon Harper

Shannon Harper had some big ideas for growth when he joined his father's Harper Auto Square in Knoxville, Tenn., in 2009. But his father's advice was clear: "He told me, we need to first focus on what we have here," recalls Shannon, vice president of the eight-franchise group. "So that's what I put my energies into."

Mission No. 1 was the fledgling Web sales operation. Harper had spent six months in an internship at Audi of America's national sales and marketing headquarters in 2007, where he worked in Audi's Internet department. He saw firsthand how the factory processed sales leads and tracked Web traffic, and how the top Audi stores in America handled the business.

In 2009, after graduating from the National Automobile Dealers Association dealer academy, he began to apply those practices at Harper's Porsche-Audi-Jaguar store in Knoxville. He set up systems for responding to sales leads and customer follow-up. He gave special attention to bolstering the stores' online reputation and customer satisfaction. In one program, he awarded sales personnel $250 every time they elicited a positive online dealer review, and another $250 to their sales manager.